Islands in the dream

Rating: 6/10 (30 December 2006)

Somewhere between Minority Report and Logan's Run/Soylent Green lives Michael Bay's, 'The Island'. If you understand going into this movie that it is a 'Michael Bay' film then you won't be too disappointed in how much it sucks, but if you're not familiar with Mr.Bay's work and are expecting a slick/smart look into a modern sci-fi thriller, you'll really be angry.
On the positive side of things, there's plenty of eye candy, whether your preference is for the bursting out and beautiful Scarlett Johansson or the always steady yet geeky macho leanings of Ewan McGregor, the viewer is never more than 45 seconds away from their allotted camera time. If you like sleek angled, yet threadbare movie sets...then all is still fine in your universe of the future.
But the film goes terribly, terribly wrong when it bypasses logical thought for the sake of its many horrible action sequences. Every action scene is filmed in an extreme close up with the camera shaking so as not to let the viewer really see how lame the scene would actually look if the camera were not shaking.
I could throw in many scenes where there is a definite leap in logic, but really, take my word for it, there's too many to recount.
But to give proper credit, the eye candy is what makes this film even somewhat entertaining. Ewan and Scarlett really do seem to be trying to earn their money, they will win you back to the film from time to time. The culprit of stupid here is in its director...he has no eye for subtlety, nor does he have a gift as a story teller.
The film also features the always sweating Djimon Hounsou as a renegade navy seal or some such thing. He's a tough guy who is hired to capture Ewan and Scarlett once they break out of their virtual 'womb'. The film also has terminal second banana Sean Bean as the bad guy who wears glasses and describes himself as a doctor to appear smart.
I'm not sure I completely bought into what the Island is supposed to represent or whether or not this story is an open forum for stem cell research or cloning...I just don't know. What I do know is that there is a shell of potential here for a better movie than the one that was made...a clone, if you will.